Earthworker Cooperative buys first factory in Dandenong

August 27, 2015
Issue 
Eureka’s Future — a worker-owned and run factory.

Earthworker Cooperative was formed to respond to the challenges of climate change and the need for local job creation, by establishing worker-owned cooperatives throughout Australia in sustainability-focused industries.

It has just raised $570,000, mostly via small donations, to establish the Eureka's Future Workers' Cooperative to produce and install high-quality Australian-made solar hot water systems.

The first Eureka’s Future worker-owned factory has now been established through the mutualisation of the Everlast Hydro Systems factory in Dandenong in Melbourne’s south-east.

The workers are learning what it is like to control their place of work. They have elected the first cooperative factory coordinator, Anthony Lister, who started on factory floor. Weekly training and education sessions in worker cooperatives are also held on the factory floor.

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